This week, we launched the Herald Safer Sydney Ad Challenge to help members of the public take a stand against alcohol-related violence.

With a $2500 prize up for grabs, the Challenge invites readers to come up with an ad - either a 30-second video or an A4 poster - aimed at helping curb the prevalence of booze-fuelled violence in Sydney.

We know you can do better but here's an example of one created by a couple of our journalists (no, they're not eligible to claim the prize).

Advertisement

The winning ad will be one that:

speaks to the target market (young people going out, in particular young men);

In 2007, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority had great success with its 'pinkie' campaign. The billboard and TV campaign showed men and women wiggling their pinkie finger at speeding drivers, hinting at another body appendage, with the slogan ‘‘Speeding. No one thinks big of you’’.

Studies showed its tongue-in-cheek approach had greater cut-through with young male audiences than traditional campaigns focused on gruesome images of crushed vehicles.

Importantly, the number of men who died in speeding cars dropped in 2007 to 116, down from 153 a year earlier.

"One of the key innovations of the campaign was delivering the anti-speeding message in a youthful, non-authoritative way, a noticeable move away from convention," one report into the campaign said.

Our challenge to readers is to come up with the 'pinkie' campaign of alcohol-related violence, something that will appeal to a young audience and has the potential to change the way people think about antisocial behaviour.

Whether it's through humour, music or brutal honesty, it represents a chance for young people to help define their culture; what they deem acceptable and unacceptable. But entries will be open to people of all ages.

To enter participants must send a 30-second video advertisement or A4 poster artwork to safersydney@smh.com.au, along with the entrant's name, age, address and contact phone number.

The winning entry will be used on Fairfax websites, and in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and tablet editions.

Entries close Friday, February 21. To find out how to enter, click here. For full terms and conditions, click here.

Hodson's daughter: Witness protection not safe

"I feel sorry for anyone coming into witness protection," says the tearful daughter of police informer Terence Hodson after the State Coroner delivered an open finding into his murder and that of his wife Christine in 2004.